Re: 5 minute games

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca>]

First, I want to say how delighted I am that Dan Forant has shown some real
humane qualities over the past little while.  The incessant stuff about
Toine was really bad and I am proud of him for coming around of late.  I
know it's a big step.

Second, we didn't lose this game in the last 5 minutes, we lost it in the
first 5 minutes when we didn't cover anyone defensively.  THAT is our
biggest team weakness.

We are not quite ready yet to handle teams who are as veteran as the Knicks
yet but we are getting closer and closer.  If not for Kenny's injury, we may
well have pulled this game out despite our frontline playing well beneath
their true capabilities.

I am still asking you all to stay patient and let Pitino do his job.

Cecil

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 9:31 AM
Subject: 5 minute games


> How many games have we lost because we couldn't close in the last 5
> minutes?  The NBA is known as the 5 minute game. The last 5 minutes
usually
> tells the tale of most of the games, especially ours. We made it look
close
> but in reality we lost it in the last 5 minutes, tired, injured or or not,
> the Knicks shut us down. A real center and a backup point could change all
> that.
>
> >The Celts got what they needed out of the tough back-to-back (a win
> >against Cleveland) so I don't fault Pitino for giving 40+ minutes to his
> >starters on the front end of the two games, even if they inevitably
> >seemed to wilt in the 4Q and also probably came out a little tight in
> >the 1Q at MSG. Tough loss but at least they hung in despite the poor
> >shooting of our forwards (11-37 from Walker, Griffin, Battie and
> >Williams) and a career game from Allan "Houston, we have a problem".
> >
> >
>